Report: Samsung Unpacked 2015

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is dead, long live the Galaxy S6, and the S6 Edge!

In full show of pride and ambition, Samsung have just announced the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge phones in Barcelona, and we were at the YouTube offices in London to watch it live, as well as get some hands on time.

Metal will flow, beauty will be powerful.
Borders will disappear, reflections will be free
Colours will live
The future will be the present!

Setting the precedent for what was to continue, the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge were shown off in their full glory. There was, probably more important, the announcement of Samsung Pay, which seems to be able to work with any card reader that can read magnetic strips, just by swiping your phone on the side. There was also the mention of the new Galaxy VR headset, that works with both the new phones.

Samsung has always been at the forefront of new technology, with innovations such as AMOLED screens, the Gear, the Note, etc.

The Galaxy S6 is, according to Samsung, the most beautiful and the most advanced smartphone in existence.

There is the claim of ‘capabilities no other phone can match’.

With the announcement of the new design, Samsung say that ‘Next is now!’.

Major digs at Apple were made, both at bendgate, as well as the camera quality.

A new clean UI, which seems to take a lot of inspiration from Lollipop is now the highlight.

In our hands-on, we experienced that the new TouchWiz is indeed faster and simpler. There seems to be a lot less bloatware on the phone, though there is still some.

The S6 and the S6 Edge feature amazing Quad HD screens, with 577 PPI!

Built in wireless charging is standard.

The phone also features faster charging, where a charge of 10 minutes should give you four hours of phone usage.

Phone is only 6.8mm thick. This is evident when you handle it.

Bot the front and the back cameras have had a major rework done. Both now have f1.9 aperture cameras, giving you 60% more light. Front camera is 5MP, giving you very good results.

The rear camera is 13MP, comes with f1.9 aperture, and OIS as standard.

The video offers great quality as well (digs at Apple were made!).

Camera can be launched by double clicking the Home button. This doesn’t replace a dedicated camera button, but definitely a good touch.

Samsung Pay has been developed in partnership with the likes of Visa and Mastercard.

There is fingerprint scanning which will work with this.

Samsung Pay seems to be able to work with any device that can read magnetic strips, i.e. any card reader.

This will become available in USA and Korea from this summer.

There is definite attention on work security as well, as Samsung is focusing on KNOX , security and data protection, which will be built into all Galaxy S6 phones.

The phones will come in 32, 64 and 128GB models.

The phones will be available from April 10th in 20 countries, and expand from there. We do not know if that includes UK.

We have already heard from Vodafone UK that they will be stocking the phones. The two devices will be able on Vodafone’s 4G network, which consequently means you can choose one of NOW TV Entertainment Pass, Sky Sports Mobile TV or Spotify Premium.

We also have confirmation from Three UK that they will be stocking the two phones.

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Can be found somewhere between designing new tech as an electronics engineer or testing new tech as a technology enthusiast. Lives mostly on Twitter, and would love to have a word with you there as @smacula.